Director: Seth Gordon
Cast: Steve Wiebe, Billy Mitchell, Walter Day, Brian Kuh
Have I Seen it Before: It doesn’t feel like I would have pent a plethora of time in college watching a lot of documentaries, but I have distinct memories of much of the film. Maybe I was drawn into the film by a Netflix recommendation during those early, halcyon days when the big red N literally had access to all of everything and sent them to you on little discs via the mail. Kids, ask your parents.
Did I Like It: While certainly a competent documentary, the material is elevated by a number of happy accidents*.
First, the Rocky-esque storyline that naturally crops up in the struggle between Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell in pursuit of world record Donkey Kong scores naturally dramatizes the subject. Wiebe is angelic to the point of being occasionally pathetic, and Mitchell might complain about his role as the villain, but anyone who appears to enjoy being a villain this much can’t lay claim to all that much sympathy.
The film’s real strengths are in its supporting characters, though. Walter Day is a delightful eccentric, when he isn’t so comprehensively convinced of the depth of his own incorruptibility when it is constantly displayed as open for negotiation.
And then there’s Brian Kuh. In the near twenty years since I last saw the film, Kuh sticks in my head, and will probably continue to do so. Feebly searching for his own second-hand glory, while persisting in being service to those more talented than him, watching him scurry around a New Hampshire arcade telling anyone who will listen that kill screen for Donkey Kong is coming up is so obsequious, it haunts. I’d watch a whole movie about Kuh, but it might keep me up at night.
*My only real complaint about the film is that the title (really, most titles) should be cut off before the colon. There’s no real connection between this and A Fistful of Dollars (1964), which it references. What’s more, never once do any of the subjects of the film notably use a corner. I would imagine for a lot of these competitive play situations—to say nothing of the home machines that are often a sticking point for high scores—don’t involve coins at all.
**That Gordon and company were skilled enough to harness for the purposes of the film.